Stamp Out Hunger food collection seeks your participation, May 12

Hunger in America? Believe it! In many ways, America is the land of plenty, but for one in six people in the United States, hunger is a reality.

Today, nearly 49 million Americans, including 16 million children, are struggling with hunger. These often are hardworking adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for several meals, or even days.

On Saturday, May 12, the United States Postal Service will team up with its letter carriers to conduct the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive across the nation to collect food donations in order to provide assistance to the millions of Americans who are struggling with hunger each and every day.

“The Postal Service is pleased to continue supporting the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) as we enter our 20th year together to help Stamp Out Hunger in America,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “I am confident the 2012 campaign will be our best ever because the need continues to grow.”

The nation’s 210,000 letter carriers will collect food donations left at the mailboxes of generous Americans in more than 10,000 communities and deliver them to food banks and other hunger relief organizations.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception in 1993. In 2011, generous Americans donated 70.2 million pounds of food, which marked the eighth consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.

Helping Stamp Out Hunger is as easy as checking your mailbox. Just leave a bag of nonperishable food where your letter carrier normally delivers your mail on Saturday, May 12. Your letter carrier will then pick up and deliver the food to a local food bank.